Buffalo's Lamonte Bearden beaten out for MAC Freshman of the Year by Ball State's Sean Sellers

Points are sexy. Assists are not, apparently.

Earlier this week we detailed why Buffalo's Lamonte Bearden should be named MAC Freshman of the Year, highlighting his all-around game.

This morning, the MAC announced that Ball State's Sean Sellers was voted Freshman of the Year by an overwhelming margin. Of 27 voters, 17 voted for Sellers, while six voted for Bearden. Akron point guard Noah Robotham received three votes and Western Michigan's Thomas Wilder earned a single nod.

Sellers is not a bad player. His 12 points per game lead all freshman, and he's the only freshman among the conference's top 30 scorers. Sellers is also one of the conference's best shooters: #2 in FT% and #3 in 3P%.

But Lamonte brings a much more well-rounded game to the floor. He's still scoring 8.1 points a game, is fourth in the MAC in assists, 11th in steals, and is no slouch from the line himself, scoring 15 more points on foul shots than Sellers.

In those stats, Bearden far outpaces Sellers, who is averaging just 1.2 assists and .3 steals a game to go with an assist-to-turnover ratio below 1.0. Each player pulls a shade under three boards a game.

It's no surprise that 12 points per game carries the heaviest weight here, but when you consider points and assists together, Lamonte's 8 and 4 are creating more offense than Sellers' 12 and 1.

I'm not diminishing Sellers' season at all, but much like Amanda Corral, he's a good player who appears very good because he gets more than his fair share of shots on a bad team. There's only one stat - points - where he's clearly better than Buffalo's freshman.

But points are sexy. Either that or voters forgot Lamonte was only in high school a year ago. He certainly doesn't play like it.